With You or Without You
by kigen
Summary: Finding themselves alone, one injured, one lost they decide to travel together. You can only be around someone for so long before feeling begin to grow strong. Jetaru. That's right, a Jet and Haru romance.


**With You or Without You**

A Jetaru (Jet and Haru) ficcie from me. I blame Yami from Deviant Art/Livejournal for unknowingly putting this pairing into my head, and Reigning Fyre for getting this plot stuck in my head.

Prologue

**Discalimer**: Jet and Haru only appear once, thus, this is proof that Avatar is not mine. That, and Sokka didn't get to keep Foofoocudleypoops. Poor little saber tooth mouse lion cub.

Everything was blurry.

The road Jet traveled swam in and out of focus. One arm hung limply at his side. The boy would hiss through his teeth whenever it brushed against his body.

The defeat he had suffered only hours before had been complete.

It had been the Fire Nation to ambush them for once. Jet and his freedom fighters had been forced from their home in the treetops when the Fire Nation set the forest on fire.

Oh how irony was a cruel, foul mistress.

Once out of the forest, they were outnumbered, literally twenty to one. The battle had been lost before it had even begun. The Fire Nation was cruel. That went without saying. Man, woman, child; it didn't matter to them. They slaughtered everyone.

Numbly, Jet went over the battle again. Kiki had been the first to fall. she was a girl just barely nine years old.

Or at least, she had been.

Then, the Duke, Smellerbee, Longshot; one after another, they all fell.

And then only he was left.

But instead of staying to fight and avenge his fallen comrades; Jet turned tail and ran. A part of his mind was screaming at him. How could he run when the bodies of his comrades, of his family, lay dead on the battle field, waiting for Jet to avenge them? How could he be such a coward?

Luckily, he had listened to the rational part of his mind. He was injured, tired, and vastly outnumbered. Staying to fight would only have lead to his death. He needed to retreat, regroups, and attack one he was ready to fight again.

Now that he had retreated, the rational part of his mind had been drowned out by the screaming guilt.

Blinking, Jet realized that during his thoughts, he had wandered off the road, and into the dense foliage.

Leaning his back against a tree, his aching legs finally gave out beneath him. He sat, eyes closed, panting harshly for breath.

Night would fall in a few hours. He should find shelter soon.

Yet his body refused to move, and his eyes refused to open.

:-:-:-:-:

Another boy of the same nation was going through a similar experience.

Though the Fire Nation no longer held a strangle hold over his village, Haru still had the habit of practicing his earth bending in the dried streambed a few miles from his home.

The day had started out normal, great even with his rapidly improving bending skills. It was when he began his trek home that Haru began to panic.

He could smell smoke coming from the village.

Breaking into a sprint, Haru raced to his house. He could see the other buildings burning, Fire Nation ship at the port; smoke and flames choked the air. Screaming could be heard from every corner of the village, but Haru turned deaf ears to the torment and chaos. His house was just ahead.

At the open door, Haru froze. A Fire Nation soldier stood, his back to the door.

But that was not what horrified him.

His father was laying motionless, face down on the floor. His mother was crouched down beside him.

Haru tired to move, to stop the soldier from harming his mother, but his mother's gaze froze him in place once more. Her aged green eyes looked into his wide ones, silently pleading with him.

_Go._ She begged. _Run and don't ever look back._

The solider noticed his mother's distracted gaze, and turned.

Scrambling back, Haru just barely managed to dodge the red hot ball of fire that flew past the side of his face. He could hear his mother's scream.

"Run Haru!"

And so, he ran.

He turned and fled the only home he had ever known, his mother's screams lingering on his ears. He obeyed his mother's dying wish.

That had been nearly three days ago.

Since then Haru had wandered aimlessly through the dense throng of forests that dominated this part of the Earth Kingdom. He knew that the attack upon his village had happened, that his parents were dead; but it just hadn't sunk it yet. He didn't want it to sink it. So he had trudged on for those three days, not stopping to rest or eat. Because if he paused for even a moment, the images would come rushing back to him.

He didn't want to think of it.

By this point, Haru was utterly lost. Hoping to find a village, or at the very least a road, Haru trudged onward.

It was a glint of light that caused him to pause. Curious, Haru went to investigate. Who knows. It might have been a knife or something that someone else had left behind that Haru could use. Walking closer, the glint turned out to be the dirty hilt of a weapon that resembled a long hook.

But whoever had left the weapon behind had stayed behind as well.

Haru held his breath. The boy before him was his age, maybe a year older. His hair was choppy and he looked like he would be pretty strong. He was also bruised, bloody, and unmoving. Pushing the events of a few days past to the back of his mind, his hand reached forward to check if the other boy was alive.

He was more than relieved to feel the warm exhalation of breath against his fingers.

Standing up, Haru looked about for a place for the two to stay for a while. He couldn't just leave the other boy there to die; his conscience would never forgive him.

Besides, he had plenty of things he needed to think about.

Yeah for Prologues! Short, sweet, and sets it all up for more. Yeah, at the moment, this looks like it's going to be a long, serious fan fiction from me. Lots of male bonding and questioning of the lines of right and wrong and such.

Anyways, thank you for reading, and please review.

Ja manna-san!


End file.
